Boulder Valley school board approves start date of Aug. 22

Boulder Valley parents who wanted school to start later to avoid some of the hottest days of summer will get their wish, although those who advocated for a post-Labor Day start will be disappointed.

The Boulder Valley school board Tuesday night unanimously approved the recommended calendar, which starts school Aug. 22 or Aug. 23, depending on grade, and keeps finals before winter break. The decision came after months of public input and revisions.

"It may not be perfect, but the process went really smoothly," said school board member Lesley Smith. "I'm happy with it."

Other features of the calendar are that it minimizes partial weeks, a request of working parents, and keeps the same spring break as the University of Colorado. The last day of school is May 30.

The final version of the calendar attempts to balance the needs of elementary parents, who generally want to avoid sending students to school in the hottest month of the summer, and high school parents, who generally want the first semester to end before winter break so students can relax instead of study for finals.

Maintaining a later start and ending the first semester before winter break required an uneven number of days per semester, with 13 fewer days in the first semester. That's been a concern for high school parents and teachers.

Two board members, Sam Fuqua and Shelly Benford, questioned whether keeping finals before winter break should supersede other concerns. Fuqua noted that the Cherry Creek School District ends its first semester a few weeks after winter break.

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One possibility that's been raised is a split calendar, with high school students starting earlier than the other grades. The district also is considering including air conditioning in its next school construction package, which would need voter approval.

Twenty-four Boulder Valley elementary schools have no air conditioning in classrooms, and eight of those schools have no air conditioning at all. All the middle and high schools are air conditioned.

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